Thursday, April 29, 2010

This is a gift book format taken from Max Lucado's book, Cure for the Common Life. It has the features that you think of when you think of a gift book -- small in size, some illustrations, and easy to read. The book was an easy read but was challenging at different parts. This book challenges the read to explore how God has created them and to be the person that God has created them to be. "You cannot be anything you want to be. But you can be everything God wants you to be." (page 39) Max Lucado also quickly reviews how God used Paul and his drive for spreading the gospel.

"You are the only you God made." Yes, this is a good reminder to help take any the commonness of life. "You need to be you." In the context of the book, that make sense but that is one of those lines that you do not want to take out of context.

The book ends with a short list of Bible characters and the items that they had and how God use those small items. That is a good reminder to all of us that God will use what we have when we give those talents and tools over to God.

Again this was an easy book to read. Thomas Nelson suggests that it would be a "perfect gift for the graduate" and I would agree. It does help to give some thoughts for guiding and planning how you are going to life your life.

One thing that I did not like in the book was the use of multiple translations of the Bible. There were probably eight to ten different translations used. To me when authors do that it makes me feel as though they are searching for verses and words to fit with what they want to say instead of looking at what the Bible says and writing that.

I received this book free from Thomas Nelson Publishers as part of their BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Saturday, April 24, 2010

We have a zoo membership. It has been nice since we live about 15 minutes from the nations first zoo. We went this morning with grandpa and grandma. With the membership I don't feel like I have to see everything in one day. A few hours and we can have fun. It is fun to take my children to the zoo where I went when I was there age. I asked my mom if she has any pictures of me at the zoo. No pictures but there might be some slides. I do remember that there was Noah's ark in the children's zoo. That is gone now and just a pond to feed the ducks.

For the next couple of months there are lego animals around the zoo. There are cards that you collect from the various places. It was fun to see the animals that they made with Legos. J decided he needs more Legos.

The kids had fun feeding the goats and the ducks. I was proud of J he brought his own money to feed the ducks and he even thought of it before we left home. We got to the monkeys as they were being fed and that was fun to watch but the pictures weren't that good as it was dark and behind glass. I think the most fascinating thing that we saw was the peacock working his hardest to attract the female. He tried and tried and shook his feathers.

Thursday, April 22, 2010

This is one of our favorite dinners because it is yummy, cheap, and easy. Whenever the grocery store has broccoli rabe on sale usually 99 cents or even 88 cents I buy it. I buy my pasta on sale and can get a box for 79 centers or 89 cents. I use one boneless skinless chicken breast.

I cook the pasta and rinse the rabe cutting it to pieces. About a minute or two after the pasta has started to cook I add the rabe. Cook until the noodles are done and the drain everything. Stir-fry the cut up chicken. Then add the pasta and rabe with some garlic or as in our case lots of garlic with a bit of olive oil. Serve with some parmesan cheese. So for about $2.50 we have a delicious dinner. Sometimes I even use whole wheat pasta.

We finished our China study. It was fun and I think we both learned quite a bit which hopefully will come back this year as we take a field trip. One of the last things we did was make paper.

First, the job was to tear the paper into small pieces and put it in a bucket of water.

Then we mixed it in the blender.

Then we strained it. That was the hard part figuring out how to get rid of the water.

We put the paper on wax paper and let it dry. That took about 2 days and included putting it in the sun. Then we had paper.We had about 4 pieces of it and now when we want to put it in the lapbook we can't find it.

We enjoyed our China study and hopefully it prepared us for our summer activities. Now we are back to our other studies -- back in Athens and Persia.

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Winston Churchill

Christian Encounters Series

By John Perry

I selected this book to give myself some understanding of Winston Churchill. I did not feel that I really knew much about him. It is a small book with just 192 pages. I found the book easy to read at the beginning but then it seemed to drag. It seemed that there were details of his life missing and places that you had to try to fill in what was happening. I do feel that I have a bit more of an understanding of who Winston Churchill was but with only 192 pages and a man such as Churchill there is so much that is missing.

The author did a good job to condense Churchill’s life and at the same time give you some of his character. You see the things that helped to make him the leader that he was. He is driven and that is seen in how he worked and worked to improve his speech. He educated himself through reading.

One other characteristic that stuck with me after reading this book was his extravagance. While everyone else is on rations he was continuing to live life the same. It even told of how towards the end of his life he spent more in 2 days on cigars then his private nurse made in a week.

This book is part of the series from Thomas Nelson called Christian Encounters, which causes one to think that these are Christians. The book at various times spoke of Winston’s religious beliefs but it does not appear that he truly was a Christian so marketing this book as part of Christian Encounters seems wrong. Overall, I would say this was a good book and I would be tempted to read some of the other books in the series.

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

This is for my friend who asked if I made the cookies with my children. I am trying to remember if I made them with her children? Hudson, Grant, Stuart, Emily -- did I make these with you? I remember making them with Emilee when she was 3.

The instructions are easy to find online.

First, you beat the pecans. My Nana used to make these cookies at Christmas with chocolate chips and she would make them red or green. I loved those cookies. I don't think anyone makes them the way Nana did and there are a few things that Nana made that no one else could make -- rice and mushrooms, crumb cake. Back to our cookies. They beat the pecans and had fun doing it. That is to remind them that Christ was beat for us.

Friday, April 2, 2010

Some days I think it might be easier to keep up with the Jones but around here we try to keep up with Miss K and keep her out of trouble.

K, don't eat the butter.

She loves butter. She eats toast just to get the butter and licks the butter off. She likes noodles with butter. She was caught the other day after she reached up grabbed the butter dish and started to eat.

We found hair next to the scissors on her desk.

Hey, she used regular scissors which is good, right.

She gave her baby a bath - sorry no picture of the soaking wet doll. The good thing was she did take off the doll's dress before giving her a bath. Now the doll is drying out in the sun.

We took a week off of school for spring break and soccer camp but we are still trying to keep up with Miss K. She keeps us laughing and enjoying life.

Thursday, April 1, 2010

I don't think that really fooled them but they did enjoy the fact that they could eat that first. Then they had a cupcake. A few minutes into the egg in a hole J figured out that wasn't icing. He remembered that I bought mashed potatoes at the store. He did tell me "mama, that was good." referring to the fact that I was able to fool them.